Spotify hits 40 million subscribers

Spotify’s paid user base is expanding more rapidly than ever, with the on-demand streaming service now boasting over 40 million paid subscribers. “Million”, the company’s co-founder Daniel Ek tweeted.

During his tenure at the Swedish firm Forster played an instrumental role in growing Spotify into the world’s largest music streaming service, which now counts over 100m registered users worldwide. Previously, Spotify reported 30 million subscribers in March, meaning that the service has racked up about 10 million new subscribers in half a year.

Apple Inc.’s Apple Music, Spotify’s main competitor, launched in June 2015, said earlier this month it had 17 million paying users. In the past year, Adele, Beyoncé, Coldplay, Rihanna, Drake, Kanye West, and Frank Ocean have withheld or delayed new music from appearing on Spotify. The company didn’t provide an update on the number of its free users.

A spokeswoman for the group confirmed to AFP that he was referring to paying subscribers.

Earlier this year, Spotify vice president Jonathan Forster said Apple Music is “raising the profile of streaming”, which has helped, not hurt, its business. Spotify has been working on converting free users into paying ones, something that reportedly has included talks about giving premium users more perks over free ones, and it comes at a time when big-name premium competitors are vying for customers.